LEADERSHIP LIBRARY

IN BRIEF

Cal Newport’s Deep Work Hypothesis: “The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it core to their working life, will thrive.” The book is a guide to how one can change his routines to generate more of this valuable Deep Work.

Key Concepts

Deep Work, defined

Deep Work: “Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” (p. 3)

Shallow Work: “Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the work and are easy to replicate.” (p. 6)

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus) (p. 40)

The Principle of Least Resistance

“In a business setting without clear feedback on the impact of various behaviors to the bottom line, we will tend toward behaviors that are easiest in the moment.” (p. 58)

Busyness as a Proxy for Productivity

“In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.” (p. 64)

There’s no one approach to Deep Work that works for everyone

“You need your own philosophy for integrating deep work into your professional life. ...You must be careful to choose a philosophy that fits your specific circumstances, as a mismatch here can detail your deep work habit before it has a chance to solidify.” (p. 102)

Rules for Deep Work

1. Work Deeply

2. Embrace Boredom—time off is important

3. Quit Social Media—reduce distraction

4. Drain the Shallows—implement structural solutions to constrain shallow work

Approaches to Deep Work

Monastic philosophy—“maximize deep efforts by eliminating or radically minimizing shallow obligations.” (p. 103)

Bimodal philosophy—“This philosophy asks that you divide your time, dedicating some clearly defined stretches to deep pursuits and leaving the rest open to everything else. During the deep time, the bimodal worker will act monastically—seeking intense and uninterrupted concentration. During the shallow time, such focus is not prioritized.” (p. 108)

Rhythmic philosophy—“the easiest way to consistently start a deep work session is to transform them into a simply regular habit.” (p. 111)

Journalistic philosophy—“you fit deep work wherever you can into your schedule.” (p. 115)

The Grand Gesture—“By leveraging radical change to your normal environment, couples perhaps with a significant investment of effort or money, all dedicated toward supporting a deep work task, you increase the perceived importance of the task. This boost in importance reduces your mind’s instinct to procrastinate and delivers an injection of motivation and energy.” (pp. 122-3)

Don’t Work Alone—“This combination of soundproofed offices connected to large common areas yields a hub-and-spoke architecture of innovation in which both serendipitous encounter and isolated deep thinking are supported.” (p. 131)

Be Lazy—“Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body...” (p. 143)

The 4 Disciplines of Execution, applied to deep work

Discipline #1: Focus on the Wildly Important—“...you should identify a small number of ambitious outcomes to pursue with your deep work hours.” (p. 137)

Discipline #2: Act on the Lead Measures—“...the relevant lead measure: time spent in a state of deep work dedicated toward your wildly important goal.” (p. 138)

Discipline #3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard

Discipline #4: Create a Cadence of Accountability (e.g., a weekly progress review)

Deep Work Examples

J.K. Rowling, Writer

“J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, does use a computer, but was famously absent from social media during the writing of her Harry Potter novels—even though this period coincided with the rise of technology and its popularity among media figures.” (p. 4)

Bill Gates, CEO

“Microsoft CEO Bill Gates famously conducted ‘Think Weeks’ twice a year, during which he would isolate himself (often in a lakeside cottage) to do nothing but read and think big thoughts. It was during a 1995 Think Week that Gates wrote his famous ‘Internet Title Wave’ memo that turned Microsoft’s attention to an upstart company called Netscape Communications.” (p. 4)

Walter Isaacson, Writer

“It was always amazing...he could retreat up to the bedroom for a while, when the rest of us were chilling on the patio or whatever, to work on his book...he’d do up for twenty minutes or an hour, we’d hear the typewriter pounding, then he’d come down as relaxed as the rest of us...the work never seemed to faze him, he just happily went up to work when he had the spare time.” (p. 115)

Adam Grant, Professor 

“Grant performs this batching on multiple levels. Within the year, he stacks his teaching into the fall semester, during which he can turn all of his attention to teaching well and being available to his students. ...By batching his teaching in the fall, Grant can then turn his attention fully to research in the spring and summer, and tackle this work with less distraction.

“Grant also batches his attention on a smaller time scale. Within a semester dedicated to research, he alternates between periods where his door is open to students and colleagues, and periods where he isolates himself to focus completely and without distraction. ...During these periods, which can last up to three or four days, he’ll often put an out-of-office auto-responder on his e-mail so correspondent will know not to expect a response.” (p. 39-40)

Quotables

“Spend enough time in a state of frenetic shallowness and you permanently reduce your capacity to perform deep work.” (p. 7)

Gallagher: “I’ll live the focused life, because it’s the best kind there is.” (p. 92)

“This is why the minimum unity of time for deep work in this [bimodal] philosophy tends to be at least one full day.” (p. 108)

“Much in the same way that athletes must take care of their bodies outside of their training sessions, you’ll struggle to achieve the deepest levels of concentration if you spend the rest of your time fleeing the slightest hint of boredom.” (p. 157)

“I, too, am incredibly cautious about my use of the most dangerous work in one’s productivity vocabulary: ‘yes.’” (p. 239)

“As the author Tim Ferris’s once wrote: ‘Develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don’t, you’ll never find time for the life-changing big things.’” (p. 255)